1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) apparatus, and more particularly to a backlight assembly for a large-sized screen and an LCD having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, information processing devices come in various shapes and are capable of functioning at high data processing speeds. In such information processing devices, information in the form of an electric signals are typically conveyed to users through a display device.
Conventional LCD apparatuses of light weight and compact sizes relative to a CRT type display device have been developed to achieve full-color and high-resolution. These LCD apparatuses operate based on the fact that liquid crystal molecules change their arrangements in response to an applied voltage. In other words, these LCD apparatuses display an image by converting variations in optical properties of liquid crystal cells into variations in visual properties. The LCD apparatuses typically receive light from a backlight assembly disposed under an LCD panel and display the image on the LCD panel.
The backlight assembly is classified into a direct illumination type LCD apparatus and an edge lighting type LCD apparatus according to the position of a light source. The direct illumination type LCD apparatus provides light to the LCD panel using a plurality of light sources disposed under the LCD panel, increasing the brightness properties of the image.
The direct illumination type LCD apparatus includes an LCD panel for displaying an image and a backlight assembly for providing the light to the LCD panel. The backlight assembly includes a plurality of lamps for generating the light, a diffusing plate disposed on the lamps, a reflecting plate disposed under the lamps and a receiving container for receiving the lamps, the diffusing plate and the reflecting plate. The diffusing plate diffuses the light from the lamps to provide light of uniform brightness distribution to the LCD panel and the reflecting plate reflects the light from the lamps to increase the amount of light supplied to the diffusing plate.
The receiving container includes a bottom mold frame, an upper mold frame and a bottom chassis. The bottom chassis includes a bottom surface and a sidewall extending from the bottom surface. The bottom mold frame receives the lamps and the diffusing plate. The reflecting plate is placed on the bottom surface of the bottom chassis and the bottom mold frame, in turn, is disposed on the reflecting plate. The upper mold frame is combined with the bottom mold frame, coupling the diffusing plate to the bottom mold frame. Then, the LCD panel is disposed on the upper mold frame. In order to fix the LCD panel to the upper mold frame, a top chassis is placed over the LCD panel and combined with the bottom chassis.
As the display size of the LCD apparatus has been gradually increasing, there has been a concomitant increase in the size of the receiving container. This trend of increasing receiving container size is undesirable because the bottom and the upper mold frames of the receiving container, generally, are manufactured by an injection molding process. The fact that the bottom and upper mold frames are manufactured using the injection molding process means that a new injection molding machine, transferring machine, etc., are needed every time there is an increase in the size of the mold frames to be manufactured. This need to constantly acquire new equipment not only drives up the manufacturing cost of the LCD apparatus but also adversely affects the quality of the manufactured LCD apparatuses. More specifically, since the injection molding process is performed under a high temperature condition, the mold frames may expand or contract, causing the end product to warp. As a result, the yield and the quality of the LCD apparatus are lowered.